Electronic devices continue to evolve rapidly with the constant improvements in designs, features, materials, and components. The electronic devices of the past seem rudimentary to the advanced devices currently available. Nevertheless, electronic devices continue to improve in performance and in overall design. One common goal among electronic device designers concerns designs that are rugged while not proving too cumbersome for daily use. Thus, many designs have been introduced to reduce the size of electronic devices without sacrificing performance or durability. With a reduction in size, many electrical components have been shifted and re-arranged into a compact configuration that has required innovative designs.
Most electronic devices include a housing assembly that contains the electronic parts and components of the electronic device. While housing assemblies typically include an outer shell which functions to both hold the components of the device and to protect the components of the electronic device from external elements, other housing assemblies have multiple structures for supporting different components within the outer shell of the housing. For example, some housing assemblies with multiple support structures have been constructed from a mold that forms a frame for mounting the different components of the electronic device.
Designing housing assemblies to be constructed from a mold can present some advantages. For instance, housing assemblies that provide a unitary frame for mounting components and parts generally provide a rigid and non-flexible frame when constructed of the appropriate materials. In many instances, electronic device housings are preferably non-flexible. Further, integrated and continuous housing assemblies can have manufacturing advantages, such as a limited number of fabrication materials.
Nevertheless, integrated and continuous housing assemblies have inherent limitations. For example, integrated housing assemblies typically do not provide modular capabilities for expanding such devices. Further, maintenance work on devices having such housing assemblies can be burdensome, and in some cases, impossible. Thus, some designs have attempted to provide housing assemblies of multiple structures which can be fastened together to produce a complete housing assembly.
While such housing assemblies can advantageously use various materials with different properties for the different structures, the different structures must be rigidly fixed together, as loose structures and components are typically not desirable. Prior art designs have rigidly fixed the multiple structures of a housing assembly with a variety of mechanical and/or chemical attachments, such as screws, rivets, ultrasonic welding, heat seals, epoxy, glues, and the like. Such mechanical and/or chemical attachments can greatly increase the assembly time and can introduce yet another material into the housing assembly, thereby increasing overall assembly costs. Further, such mechanical and/or chemical attachments are commonly the location of stress and fatigue failures due to weakened structural components and/or faulty construction.